Financial Post’s Cattaneo retiring from oil and gas beat

Claudia Cattaneo, who has covered oil and gas for the Financial Post in Canada for more than two decades, is retiring and writes about how the beat has changed in the past 20 years.

Cattaneo writes, “Oil and gas reporting has changed a lot, reflecting both the disruption in mainstream media and the war between fossil fuels and green energy.

“It now takes real courage to do it.

“Reporters have become collateral damage in the conflict between the two camps. Their reputations are constantly under attack and dismissed as ‘oil shills’ on social media by activists who’d rather see fair industry coverage suppressed.

“In reality, the oil and gas industry has responded by becoming less accessible, which is not helpful to anyone. Company leaders and analysts stick to scripts and keep media out of events, tours of operations are now rare, most of the communications staff has been fired, and credible sources are hard to find. Information has splintered over many social media platforms, some credible, some not. Meanwhile, media budgets have shrunk and editorial staff cut.

“There is a lot more information now, but of low quality.

“It’s all left readers begging once again for credible and independent reporting on energy, whether about the safety of pipelines or carbon emissions, as political leaders make important decisions about the sector’s future.”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

This website is operated by Chris Roush, who teaches “Writing and Reporting,” “Business Reporting,” “Economics Reporting,” and “Business and the Media” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.